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Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Uncle Sam Wants You! / Residency Shortage





Uncle Sam Wants You! / Residency Shortage


The only way the residency shortage will resolve in a timely fashion depends on YOU!  I mean this literally.  There is a no “One” person who can effect this change before countless fully qualified doctors are “lost”.  It will take a groundswell of voices to bring this travesty to the forefront of our Nation.  We need YOUR VOICE.


The solution to the residency shortage will not be linear.  As you have read, some states are creating legislation to “preserve” their unmatched doctors until the number of residency slots catch up.  Some states are increasing their budgets to teaching hospitals to underwrite the addition of residency slots and the beginning of new residency programs.  Some states are allowing other health care professionals to perform services once performed only by doctors.  Some states are still “wallowing” in bureaucratic doldrums.  The solutions are a “little bit of this and a little bit of that”.

 In the meantime, thousands of unmatched doctors are dealing individually with an unimaginable “betrayal” and all that it encompasses (school loans, no career path, and despondency).  They “did” what we told them to do, and we “broke the contract”.  Ultimately, “we” will pay the price for this travesty.  Right when the baby boomers tap into healthcare the most, there will be a doctor shortage.  Forget about “preventative care”.  We will be lucky to get “reactive care” for our healthcare challenges.

 When the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 reduced the reimbursement for residencies, yet increased the number of medical schools, the resulting impact has been devastating.  “We” knew this Act was not perfect at the outset, and changes would have to be made.  Little did we know the “individual” repercussions that would ensue. 

 These unmatched doctors have worked so hard, for so many years, and at such great expense, not to be able to complete the final step in their training.  The “right hand” of Congress definitely did not know what the “left hand” was doing.  We have got to make this RIGHT! 


 Only your voices and those of your contacts can effect the “tsunami” needed to bring this solution to the forefront.  Please write, tweet, share, and “demand” a solution now!

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